1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to immunological reagents for therapeutic use, for example, in radioimmunotherapy (RAIT), and diagnostic use, for example, in radioimmunodiagnosis (RAID) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). In particular, the invention relates to bi-specific antibodies (bsAb) and bi-specific antibody fragments (bsFab) which have at least one arm that specifically binds a targeted tissue and at least one other arm that specifically binds a targetable conjugate. Further, the invention relates to monoclonal antibodies that have been raised against specific immunogens, humanized and chimeric monoclonal bi-specific antibodies and antibody fragments having at least one arm that specifically binds a targeted tissue and at least one other arm that specifically binds a targetable conjugate, DNAs that encode such antibodies and antibody fragments, and vectors for expressing the DNAs. Earlier provisional patent applications, U.S. Ser. No. 60/090,142 and U.S. Ser. No. 60/104,156 disclose a part of what is now included in this invention and are incorporated herein by reference in their entireties.
2. Related Art
An approach to cancer therapy and diagnosis involves directing antibodies or antibody fragments to disease tissues, wherein the antibody or antibody fragment can target a diagnostic agent or therapeutic agent to the disease site. One approach to this methodology which has been under investigation, involves the use of bi-specific monoclonal antibodies (bsAb) having at least one arm that specifically binds a targeted diseased tissue and at least one other arm that specifically binds a low molecular weight hapten. In this methodology, a bsAb is administered and allowed to localize to target, and to clear normal tissue. Some time later, a radiolabeled low molecular weight hapten is given, which being recognized by the second specificity of the bsAb, also localizes to the original target.
Although low MW haptens used in combination with bsAbs possess a large number of specific imaging and therapy uses, it is impractical to prepare individual bsAbs for each possible application. Further, the application of a bsAb/low MW hapten system has to contend with several other issues. First, the arm of the bsAb that binds to the low MW hapten must bind with high affinity, since a low MW hapten is designed to clear the living system rapidly, when not bound by bsAb. Second, the non-bsAb-bound low MW hapten actually needs to clear the living system rapidly to avoid non-target tissue uptake and retention. Third, the detection and/or therapy agent must remain associated with the low MW hapten throughout its application within the bsAb protocol employed.
Of interest with this approach are bsAbs that direct chelators and metal chelate complexes to cancers using Abs of appropriate dual specificity. The chelators and metal chelate complexes used are often radioactive, using radionuclides such as cobalt-57 (Goodwin et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,863,713), indium-111 (Barbet et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,256,395 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,274,076, Goodwin et al., J. Nucl. Med., 33:1366–1372 (1992), and Kranenborg et al., Cancer Res (suppl.), 55:5864s–5867s (1995) and Cancer (suppl.) 80:2390–2397 (1997)) and gallium-68 (Boden et al., Bioconjugate Chem., 6:373–379, (1995) and Schuhmacher et al., Cancer Res., 55:115–123 (1995)) for radioimmuno-imaging. Because the Abs were raised against the chelators and metal chelate complexes, they have remarkable specificity for the complex against which they were originally raised. Indeed, the bsAbs of Boden et al. have specificity for single enantiomers of enantiomeric mixtures of chelators and metal-chelate complexes. This great specificity has proven to be a disadvantage in one respect, in that other nuclides such as yttrium-90 and bismuth-213 useful for radioimmunotherapy (RAIT), and gadolinium useful for MRI, cannot be readily substituted into available reagents for alternative uses. As a result iodine-131, a non-metal, has been adopted for RAIT purposes by using an I-131-labeled indium-metal-chelate complex in the second targeting step. A second disadvantage to this methodology requires that antibodies be raised against every agent desired for diagnostic or therapeutic use.
Thus, there is a continuing need for an immunological agent which can be directed to diseased tissue and can specifically bind to a subsequently administered targetable diagnostic or therapeutic conjugate.